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A convicted rapist has been sentenced over the “disturbing” secret filming of several Sydneysiders while they were naked or having sex in their own homes.
Aref Pandamooz, 35, is serving a seven-year jail sentence with a four-year non-parole period for raping a woman in a Sydney nightclub in 2019.
Aref Pandamooz was sentenced to six months in jail, but will spend no further time behind bars on top of his current sentence.Credit: Facebook
The Iranian national was sentenced over the horrific act in April last year.
Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday heard that several months after he assaulted the young woman, he was peeping through windows on Sydney’s streets and committing other disturbing – albeit less serious – crimes.
Across 10 incidents in May and April 2020, Pandamooz stood outside the bathroom and bedroom windows of two women and one man and illegally recorded them while they were naked.
One woman was filmed 22 times in her Ryde home over eight nights, the police fact sheet read. On each occasion, she was undressing or dressing before or after a shower.
The Ryde resident filmed another woman as she sat on her bed while topless, as well as a couple having sex in Denistone East in north-west Sydney.
Each act was done late at night.
Police arrested Pandamooz on June 3, and after seizing and searching his phone found the incriminating videos.
“Given the similar timings of each recorded video, (Pandamooz) was well aware of the routines of each victim … and recorded each without their consent in circumstances they would reasonably expect privacy,” the fact sheet read.
Aref Pandamooz is a convicted rapist.Credit: Facebook
“(He) caused them all to feel intimidated and fearful for their safety … Police will allege he has built a library of videos for his own sexual gratification.”
According to the fact sheet, police allegedly found more compromising videos of other young women on his phone, but there were legal barriers to prosecution.
Defence lawyer Mark Higgins told the court his client should receive a concurrent sentence for the majority of offences because they had “the same victim (with) the same circumstances”.
Magistrate Daniel Reiss acknowledged most offences related to the one victim, but said each matter was “an invasion of privacy, not only generally, but whilst they were in the privacy of their own home”.
“It’s quite disturbing,” Reiss said.
“One matter involves a woman partly dressed and one involves a husband and wife engaging in sexual activity … The offences have come to light due to you being out and about one night, and perhaps doing similar actions, and your phone was confiscated and examined.”
The court heard Pandamooz was diagnosed with depression after a workplace injury forced him out of his usual job as a painter in 2019. He also struggled with alcohol abuse at the time of offending. Reiss sentenced Pandamooz to an aggregate sentence of six months in jail.
But, he will not spend any more time behind bars as his sentence will be served concurrently with his previous sentence for rape and will not extend his non-parole period.
In September, Pandamooz sought to quash his convicted for rape and aggravated sexual assault over the nightclub incident after a jury found him guilty in a NSW District Court trial.
His appeal was dismissed.
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